What!? Ummm no that can't be right! That totally messes with my heart theology.
But when you take a step back. Reread. And process... The statement is true. God's love is not unconditional.
God's love for us is conditional in that there are things He expects of us. We have a perfect, blameless God who commands that we love Him with our whole heart, mind, body and soul. He commands that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Our Father commands us to have no other gods or idols we put before Him (or at all). God commands His children to keep themselves from being polluted by the world. We have a God who commands these things but He knew that we would never be able to obey all the way, right away, with a joyful heart.
He knew this so He sent His Son.
God's love is not unconditional but it is this: True. Pure. Just. Unwavering. Perfect. Without fault. Righteous. Patient. Everlasting. All consuming. Passionate. Christ Centered.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son." This passage is obviously true! God loves us so much. But what we have missed in this passage is that it's about His Son, not so much us. A few verses later in John 3:35 scripture says, "The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands."
You see, The Father really loves Jesus. And we are Jesus' inheritance. And that too messes with my head's theology. Although I don't quite understand why Jesus would be Really Excited to have humans (all sorts of messed up people) as His inheritance (prize, legacy, birthright, heritage) but I am sure thankful!
Because of Jesus I don't have to try to earn God's love. Jesus' life and death earned it for me. I rest in knowing that. I hope you can too.
~Nicole
No comments:
Post a Comment